Bailey suddenly snorted. He crossed his arms and looked at Elijah with narrowed eyes.
“Because of a certain someone, we had to use up our one and only teleportation magic tool.”
“……”
“I won’t bother telling you how much that magic tool cost. Just know that we did everything we could to save you, Elijah-ssi. Whatever the detailed circumstances were, you looked truly dangerous at the time.”
Elijah would rather go back to sleep. He brought it up for nothing and didn’t even break even. Right, I’m the sinner here… Though there were quite a few unfair aspects to being the only one at fault, he had no money and no power, so even if it was dirty and petty, there was nothing he could do.
“……I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”
The candy in his mouth felt bitter. He hadn’t realized it when secluded in the forest, but now that he was out, he truly was nothing but a nuisance and an ignoramus.
It wasn’t something a runaway should say, but Elijah missed Rose again. How wonderful it would have been if he could have stayed with that child.
How wonderful it would have been if that child had remained young and weak.
* * *
“By any chance, has there been a telegram for me?”
“There hasn’t been. And about the floor repairs for the room you gentlemen burned, it’s going to cost more than expected……”
While Kalian spoke with the innkeeper, Elijah sat around a table with two uncomfortable companions. Perhaps because Bailey and Adam were in front of him, or perhaps due to the aftereffects of motion sickness, he had little appetite. The headache that had started at some point also wouldn’t subside, making his head dizzy.
On days when his body felt this unwell, he would lie down all day without lifting a finger, but it seemed these people had no intention of letting him lie down.
“Elijah-ssi, by any chance, are those clothes specially made?”
Kalian, who had finished his conversation at the counter and returned, sat down next to him.
“……No.”
Elijah, who had been nibbling at the duck meat that oozed grease with just the slightest touch of his fork, replied halfheartedly.
“Then it wouldn’t matter if we threw them away, would it?”
“……Pardon?”
“I’d like to buy you new clothes.”
Elijah looked down at his own outfit anew. The clothes, torn and dirtied here and there from running and rolling around in the mountains all night, were beyond the level that could be improved by mere mending and washing.
“Don’t worry about the money. I’m just giving them to you.”
“……”
Elijah sniffed at his own clothes. But Rose bought me these clothes… It seems a bit wasteful to throw them away. I think I can still smell Rose’s scent on these clothes……
“No, it’s not because they smell.”
As if misunderstanding his actions somehow, Kalian waved his hands in denial.
“Elijah-ssi’s current appearance is, well…… um.”
Kalian couldn’t bring himself to say he looked like a beggar. Elijah’s appearance looked to anyone like a beggar who had escaped from some underground dungeon. If one were on the run, normally the first thing they’d pay attention to would be their clothing, but he didn’t know if the man was dense or easygoing.
“I’m worried people will misunderstand you, Elijah-ssi. Since we’re traveling together, shouldn’t our attire be at least somewhat similar in standard?”
Eventually Elijah nodded.
“If you insist…… I suppose I have no choice.”
Thinking about it belatedly, nothing was more important for fleeing than a change of clothes. It would be much safer to wear new clothes than to keep wearing the same clothes from when he ran away.
“Thank you for consenting, Elijah-ssi.”
Consenting? Conseeenting? Bailey inwardly stuck out his tongue at Kalian’s utterly servile choice of words. Who was the one giving charity here…… Wasn’t it as if he was begging and pleading to offer clothes?
Moreover, why was the one receiving charity so confident, as if reluctantly permitting something he didn’t want to do?
Even after going out to the street, Bailey was full of dissatisfaction. His superior cherished Elijah so much that he suddenly felt like he was serving a new superior he never had in his fate.
“Adam, throw this away over there.”
Adam, who received Elijah’s old cloak from Kalian, also had an expression similar to Bailey’s.
“Elijah-ssi, how is it? Do you like it?”
What good nature. Bailey looked at Elijah, who was wearing a navy cloak in a similar tone to Kalian’s cloak that had burned not long ago. He didn’t know which part of that flying squirrel his superior rated so highly to bestow such luxury.
“……It seems fine.”
While Elijah barely glanced at the mirror and casually nodded, Bailey pulled Kalian aside and lowered his voice.
“Sir Kalian, don’t you think this is a bit excessive?”
“What is.”
“That fellow doesn’t even know how to control his own magic power. What benefit would there be in taking such a person to the royal palace? There’s no need to be this good to him……”
“It’s not just because of that.”
Kalian pulled Bailey a bit farther away in case Elijah might hear their conversation.
“I still don’t know the extent of that fellow’s abilities either.”
When he discovered Adam transformed into a frog, he had been certain he was a genius magician, but after actually dealing with Elijah, he couldn’t get a grasp on him at all.
“Dispelling lock magic or selectively burning only a cloak that interferes with magic power emission requires very precise formula calculations.”
“It doesn’t add up for him to simply be unable to control his magic power.”
“Right. Clearly judging by the results alone, he’s outstandingly talented enough to make your eyes pop out, yet the person himself acts like an ignoramus who knows nothing, so it’s strange. And……”
Moreover, now it wasn’t just Elijah’s magical ability that was important.
“You also heard from Gillie. That there was talk about a vampire in Elijah-ssi’s letter.”
The trail of the vampire they tracked several years ago had definitely ended in that forest. But coincidentally, years later, a new clue emerged from the same location.
Could this really be called a coincidence?
“We need to coax Elijah-ssi a bit more. We need to break down his guard as much as possible and get him to open up.”
“Well…… so it’s not pure goodwill, then.”
Bailey finally felt a bit relieved and looked back at Elijah. A man being chased by an unidentified person, possessing tremendous magic power but unable to handle it skillfully, a crazy person claiming to be Jade Ilisian’s disciple.
“He’s really a creepy person in many ways.”
While the two were having such a conversation, Elijah, left alone with Adam, was busy fidgeting with his unfamiliar new clothes and watching Adam’s reactions.
“Um……”
When Elijah, who had been hesitating for a while, finally opened his mouth, Adam flinched in surprise and stepped back from him.
“Wha, what. What is it.”
Startled as well, Elijah hunched his shoulders. The distance between the two gradually widened.
“……Whe, where are the clothes I was wearing?”
“Those were thrown away long ago. Wh, why do you ask.”
“Just…… it seems wasteful.”
Adam found such an Elijah strange. The clothes he had been wearing were so ruined that even a beggar wouldn’t pick them up if thrown on the street.
In any case, if the person in question said it was wasteful, what could a third party say? Adam told him the location where the clothes were thrown away before the possibly offended Elijah could turn him into a frog again.
“Look in that garbage pile over there. No one would pick up such torn clothes, so they should still be there.”
Elijah looked across the street where he pointed. It seemed too regrettable to just throw away something that still had Rose’s scent remaining. It was clothing Elijah had some attachment to, in his own way.
The downtown area around evening was bustling with all kinds of people. Taking care not to be swept away by the passing crowd, Elijah crossed the street and was just reaching out his hand toward his cloak buried among the garbage.
“Ah.”
His body collided with someone and staggered.
“Are you alright? I’m sorry.”
A large white hand was extended before Elijah’s eyes.
“I’m alri……”
It was a hand that somehow didn’t feel unfamiliar. Due to the visual familiarity, Elijah habitually grasped that hand and raised his head as he lifted his body.
“Hic……”
Horror filled the green eyes that faced the other person.
“Rose.”
A reflexive name burst from Elijah’s mouth. Red lips curved upward in an arc. A faint smile spread across the white face looking down at him.
“Hng, mmph……”
“Oh my, you should be careful.”
The hand wrapped around his waist supported his lifelessly tilting body. Unable to even scream, the terrified Elijah pushed against his chest. Rose’s face, pushed back as it was, gradually grew distant. His mind, churning with momentary fear, flickered hazily.
“……lijah-ssi? Elijah-ssi!”
The unconscious, thin body collapsed heavily onto the street.
* * *
An old monastery, the dark dining hall on the ground floor.
“Begin eating.”
With the clear ringing of a bell, the hands of the children sitting at regular intervals around the old oak table all reached for bread simultaneously. It was a perfectly synchronized movement without a single error, as if matched to a single beat.
Small, round, close-cropped heads bobbed together. Jade Ilisian sat at the head seat, examining each of those children one by one and belatedly picking up bread himself.
“Elijah, Elijah.”
At the sound of someone calling him from somewhere, Elijah looked around. Soon a couple of small bread crumbs flew toward his cheek. It was the doing of Igrit, who was sitting diagonally across from him. Bowing his head, he whispered quietly.
“Let’s go pick pomegranates this evening.”
Elijah also lowered his voice and asked.
“Pomegranates are already ripe? It’s winter.”
“I don’t know, but there’s something growing behind that birch tree over there? Something small and red. Isn’t that a pomegranate?”
“I don’t know either……”
“Let’s go look later.”
“I can’t this evening.”
“Why?”
“There’s a test tomorrow. I have to train.”
“Idiot. That kind of thing, you can just do briefly in the morning.”
